The year 1978 in Britain marked the tail end of the first punk wave, a moment when labels were hunting for something with broader commercial reach. Dire Straits, who had emerged from the London pub-rock circuit, were the precise opposite of the prevailing fashion: Mark Knopfler's spare, country-jazz phrasing fitted neither punk nor disco. The album climbed the charts slowly. "Sultans of Swing" became a hit in the United States only in the spring of 1979, a full five months after the American release, and it was that success which finally pulled UK sales of the LP upward.

The later collector trade in this title follows a plain supply-and-demand logic: the album was a multi-million seller, so original copies are abundant. Early first pressings have been described by dealers as "staple fodder for car boot sales". The value trajectory is consequently flat. Through the 1980s and 1990s a clean copy fetched next to nothing, and even today tidy copies of 9102 021 change hands for modest sums. Premium price can only apply to near-mint examples complete with the printed lyric inner sleeve.